There Is Only The Battle
by Shutterbug5269
Summary: "There are no victories, there is only the battle. The best you can hope for is to find your spot." Another AU look at Castle, rearranged. Kate lost her shield her first year as a detective, Can Detective Lieutenant Richard Castle earn her trust enough to help solve the case of her shooting? My Entry for the 2014 #CastleFicathon. Now with amazing new cover art by @Dtrekker
1. Prologue

**Chapter One:**  
Prologue

* * *

_"There are no victories, there is only the battle,  
the best that you can hope for is to find your spot"  
Roy Montgomery  
_

* * *

July 22nd 2011

Detective Lieutenant Richard Castle stepped off the elevator and into the 12th Precinct squad room for the first time since late May, to take charge of the Homicide division as lead detective. He had only recently been promoted to Lieutenant and the last time he had been here, he had been the primary on the shooting of former detective Katherine Beckett. He hadn't been to the funeral and hadn't known Captain Montgomery personally, only by reputation. He'd been with the 17th Precinct then.

Inexplicably, six years before, she had been granted a full pension after only four years with the department, near the end of her first year as the youngest female detective in NYPD history. Her clearance rate had been impressive for rookie detective, yet she had been forced out. Why?

During the course of his investigation, he had detected a heightened level of animosity between Beckett and Detective Javier Esposito, his predecessor as lead detective. Bad blood that went back to her forced "retirement" back in 2005 and had only gotten worse in the years between then and Montgomery's shooting.

Animosity that had stemmed from allegations she had leveled against Captain Montgomery shortly before before her career had hit the skids. Any other detective, but himself would have assumed that this was the root cause of her downward spiral, but curiously he could find nothing to document that Montgomery had ever filed a report or censured her for it. Only a sworn statement from Detective Javier Esposito made years after the fact.

There was a story behind all of this, Lieutenant Castle was certain of it, a chain of events that would make this whole sordid affair make sense. The portion of his psyche that had once desired to be a writer was sure of it. Such "not-so-voluntary" retirements were rarely made in a vacuum. Something must have happened. Something either the department, or somebody seriously high up in the city hall food chain, had wanted kept quiet and out of the public record. The kind of record a departmental hearing would have brought out into the light of day.

According to the background check he'd had done on her, Beckett's former training officer Mike Royce had helped her get a PI license, certification as a bail enforcement agent, and a concealed carry permit for both a Sig Sauer P-229 and and a Glock 26. Though she had not long afterward had recently been signed to a second three book deal with Black Pawn Publishing as a murder mystery novelist, billing her as the "Mistress of the Macabre."

Alexis was a fan, and thanks to his mother's connections, she never missed a book signing or launch party. She had been inconsolable for days when she'd found out about Beckett's shooting, and had even skipped school to show up at his precinct to nose around for information. Rick had had a uniform drive her back to school.

He had started to read her books, too, as a way to stay connected with his daughter's life, but secretly he found he liked them. She had obviously taken her time to do her research. Her primary heroine, Rachel McCord seemed believable as an NYPD homicide detective, though he thought her books were a little too cerebral. Too trapped in the cases and lacking the personal touches that would make McCord more relatable. Beckett's books could use a character to challenge McCord personally, draw her out of the dark places she seemed to inhabit.

But what did he know? He was a former Marine Force Recon sniper-turned homicide detective, not a writer or a literary critic. He took down bad guys for a living, had been for much longer than Kate Beckett had been a cop.

As a matter of fact, there was very little actual documentation of the sequence of events leading to her being "offered" early retirement. Even her service jacket was clean. Everything seemed to have been sanitized. Rick had been a Spec. Warfare operator. He knew a whitewash when he saw one.

He had been the next detective in the rotation when the call had come through about the shooting at Forest Lawn Cemetery. That former Detective Third Class Katherine Beckett had been shot by a sniper as she paid her respects to the Montgomery family, shortly after being slapped in the face by Evelyn Montgomery.

On a slow news cycle, the shooting of a famous, best selling author at a police funeral had hit the media like a firestorm, compounded by speculation that she had been forced out of the department under a cloud. The possibility of media scrutiny had been among the many factors for his captain (who had been at the funeral) personally assigning the case to him. One of his last before the results of his Lieutenant's exam came through. Something the NYPD brass had been quick to jump on, informing the media that a high ranking detective was on the case, which had been all over the news for weeks.

The physical evidence had been sketchy at best. All they had was an anomalous DNA sample, a Knight's Armament SR-25 sniper rifle and pieces of a Guile suit. Whomever her shooter had been, he was in the wind and hadn't resurfaced to finish the job.

A single .308 Lapua round would have finished the job. Kate Beckett _should_ have been dead, her heart reduced to so much hamburger. From her wound pattern, however, she had likely been hit with a frangible round which had splintered on impact. Her shooting was shaping up to be more of a warning to Kate Beckett than a full on assassination attempt with every piece of information he uncovered.

He had tried twice to interview Beckett, during her recovery at Presbyterian, both times she had claimed to have no memory of anything after Montgomery's wife had slapped her. He could tell from her body language that she was hiding something, holding something back, but her father, a corporate lawyer from uptown had intervened before he could call her on it.

He left his card with both of them and walked out. Three hours later she had checked out against medical advice and disappeared. He'd only found out she'd come up for air when her third book had come out. By then, the case had grown cold. Her case may have hit the back burner, but he was tenacious, and had no intention of letting it go. He'd keep looking into it until he found the guy.

Which is what brought him here today. The new Captain of the 12th Precinct, Victoria Gates had been impressed with his work on the Beckett shooting. He hadn't let the woman's bad reputation in the department effect his judgment. Treated her like any other victim of a violent crime. He had been professional and tenacious, but there just wasn't enough evidence to work with, and the shooter had faded like a ghost. When he had received his lieutenant's badge and the bar on his collar, Gates had lobbied for him to be transferred to her command.

She had been forced to demote the former lead detective of her homicide squad, Javier Esposito for insubordination that past summer. Not surprisingly, his partner Kevin Ryan had refused the position out of loyalty. As a Marine, he could respect that.

When Ms. Beckett had pulled her disappearing act, Esposito and his partner had tracked her down and had, without authorization attempted to compel her to come back to the city for questioning. By all indications causing her to have a panic attack. Her father had filed a formal complaint and Gates had been forced to suspend Esposito for a week for abuse of authority, conduct unbecoming, and harassment and placed a formal reprimand in both of their service jackets. A restraining order was also filed, requiring them both to remain at least twenty five miles from the Beckett family cabin in the Adirondack Park.

He wasn't sure he liked the idea of working for a former IAB detective. From what he'd been able to determine, the woman had been pretty fair, if a little tenacious. But, there was still a stigma from having been with the rat squad for most of her career. He would have to wait and see what kind of Boss she would be.


	2. Tentative Beginning

**Chapter Two  
Tentative Beginning**

* * *

"_We speak for the dead. That's the job.  
We are all they've got once the wicked rob them of their voices.  
We owe them that. But we don't owe them our lives."  
_Roy Montgomery

* * *

_Previously_

_She had been forced to demote the former lead detective of her homicide squad, Javier Esposito for insubordination that past summer. Not surprisingly, his partner Kevin Ryan had refused the position out of loyalty. As a Marine, he could respect that._

_When Ms. Beckett had pulled her disappearing act, Esposito and his partner had tracked her down and had, without authorization attempted to compel her to come back to the city for questioning. By all indications causing her to have a panic attack. Her father had filed a formal complaint and Gates had been forced to suspend Esposito for a week for abuse of authority, conduct unbecoming, and harassment and placed a formal reprimand in both of their service jackets. A restraining order was also filed, requiring them both to remain at least twenty five miles from the Beckett family cabin in the Adirondack Park._

_He wasn't sure he liked the idea of working for a former IAB detective. From what he'd been able to determine, the woman had been pretty fair, if a little tenacious. But, there was still a stigma from having been with the rat squad for most of her career. He would have to wait and see what kind of Boss she would be._

* * *

Lieutenant Rick Castle, dressed in his formal dress blue NYPD uniform, tentatively stepped out of his personal vehicle, a Chevy Suburban and waited for Alexis to step out of the passenger side. Bbefore looking up the private driveway at the Beckett family cabin in the Adirondacks. He hadn't told anyone at the precinct he was coming, but Mr. Chambers at the local bait shop had told him that Jim Beckett was still in town and had bought enough groceries for two people to last for another six weeks. He'd been wary when Castle had flashed his badge. If he and Alexis hadn't been a fixture up here for years, the man would have sent him packing. They would know he was coming anyway.

His mother had gotten him his cabin in the Adirondacks the summer after he had transferred from the LAPD to the NYPD and moved into her loft on Broome Street. She had wanted him to have someplace where he could get away from the city, she had told him, where he and his daughter could connect, especially after the messy divorce from Meredith. The two of them had since fished, camped around and canoed nearly every lake, stream and hiking trail from Thendara to Lake Placid.

Though he had never had occasion to run into Jim Beckett up here before Kate's shooting, he had heard of him. Heard about the tragedy that had befallen their family when Jim's wife had been killed in a mugging gone wrong. Johanna Beckett had cross-examined him once on the stand. She had been a force of nature in the courtroom, not needing to accuse him of wrongdoing to advocate for her client. He'd respected her.

As a matter of fact, Captain Gates believed he was on such a camping trip with his daughter, which in fact he was. Alexis had perked up at the thought of a camping trip, as his work schedule rarely afforded them the opportunity to spend a lot of quality time together. Usually they spent it at the loft playing laser tag, or watching the zombie movies that he could not quite understand Alexis' fascination with.

His mother had tried, God bless her, to get Alexis interested in more traditionally _"girly"_ things, but it had never seemed to take. She idolized her father, the soldier-turned-cop who hunted down the bad guys and kept the world safe from monsters since she was old enough to walk. She had done her civics class at age fourteen in the property room of his precinct and to this day, The 17th still had the best organized one of any in the department.

Though he dreaded it, Richard Castle knew that his daughter longed to follow in his footsteps into law enforcement. He knew that forbidding it would merely make her dig her heels in even deeper, but he hoped he could channel it into a different direction. He had been to far too many police funerals on both coasts to want such a dangerous life for her.

As soon as his transfer to the 12th had been finalized, he had introduced his daughter to Lanie Parish over at OCME. He'd heard the scuttlebutt around the precinct, that she and Detective Esposito were something of an item, and it was probably a bad idea, but the life of a Medical Examiner was a lot less dangerous than that of a cop and much more of a challenge for his daughter's fierce intellect.

Dr. Parish had been wary at first - unsure about the daughter of the man who had '_taken her man's job' - _but after one day with Alexis the saucy medical examiner had fallen in love with her, just like everybody did. Lanie had even dressed Esposito down for badmouthing him in front of her and kicking him out of the morgue.

He was happy that his little girl had not taken after her mother to become a flighty, self- absorbed party girl and proud of her for wanting to contribute something to society. He would have been damned proud of her even if she had wanted to be a Broadway actress like her grandmother; he just wanted her to see that she didn't need to put her life on the line like he did in order to make a difference.

When he'd told her what he had planned when they came out here she had insisted on coming along. There were definitely days that he had come to regret his decision to never lie to his daughter, this being one of them.

He had tried to explain that this was police business but she would have none of it, pointing out that if this was official business, he would not be going behind his captain's back on his own time. The die had been cast when he'd gone out to the Suburban to find her in the passenger seat holding out a travel cup of coffee for him when he got in, and a basket of homemade muffins in her lap.

"I'm not going to get rid of you, am I?" He'd asked, with only a slight edge of mock annoyance in his voice.

"Not in this lifetime, dad."

He'd made her promise, made her pinky swear, (one of the few teenage-girly things that had seemed to take with her) that she would keep the fan-girl flailing to a minimum and let him do the talking. This was about apologizing for Detective Esposito's behavior and hopefully securing her cooperation with his investigation into who had tried to kill her. Not a private meet-and-greet with her favorite author.

He could sense her growing excitement though as they nearred the turnoff to the Beckett cabin. She was practically bouncing in her seat. He doubted she was prepared to see her favorite author as a shooting victim, something he'd hoped to shield his daughter from.

When he'd gotten out of the suburban, he was unsurprised to see Jim Beckett rise from his seat on the porch of the cabin, the man's face a mask of caution, even though there was some hope in his eyes too. Castle knew he'd had no reason to trust the NYPD up until this point, and Javier Esposito had only been partially to blame for that. The man who'd shot his daughter two months ago was still out there somewhere. Castle knew that that was on his shoulders.

"If Bobby Chambers hadn't personally vouched for you, I would have had the troopers waiting with me." the elder Beckett said by way of greeting.

Rick walked up to the porch, Alexis partially hiding behind him, suddenly shy, until they were standing at the bottom step of the porch. Rick snapped to full attention, just like the Marines had taught him, and looked the man in the eye.

"Before I say anything else," Rick began, "I would like to personally apologize to you and your daughter, on behalf of the 12th Precinct, for Detective Esposito's actions. He was not acting under mine, nor anyone else's authority when he came up here. As a matter of fact, he has since been officially censured for interfering in my investigation into your daughter's shooting. He's been demoted to Detective second class and I have since replaced him as lead detective at the 12th Precinct."

Before Rick knew what was going on, Kate had appeared at the door, a look of anguish on her face.

"Thank you for not taking his badge, Detective Castle," Kate whispered, "I know you could have if you'd wanted to press the issue. He was my partner for nearly a year; the job is all he has left."

Rick was a little shocked, to say the least. He had expected venom from her, considering what Esposito had put her through last month, not gratitude for letting him keep his job, something he'd seriously considered. The man had set his investigation back to square one over his senseless personal vendetta. He could tell that Kate and her father had agreed to disagree on this issue. He couldn't say he would be different if it was Alexis.

The only thing Esposito had seemed to be contrite about at the time was screwing up his case. Castle knew there would be some tension in the precinct when Esposito came back. Ryan was already freezing him out, even though they were temporarily paired up while his partner was on suspension, and likely would be until Esposito was done riding a desk before he got his gun back. Gates wasn't cutting him an inch of slack. The brass at 1PP wanted their pound of flesh from the man, and she was making sure they got it.

He sensed a sparring match or two in the exercise room to sort this out. Just like they'd unofficially used the training circle in the corps. Settle it in the ring to it wouldn't find its way onto the street. Cops had gotten killed for less.

"I came, Ms. Beckett, because I need your help. I think Captain Montgomery's death and your shooting are connected, but I can't prove it. I'm being stonewalled."

"I'm sorry, Detective...I can't...I just can't," Kate whispered before disappearing from the doorway like a ghost.

Castle took a step toward the door, only to be stopped by a gentle hand at his chest. Jim had softened a bit toward him in the few minutes of the exchange between himself and Kate. He knew he wouldn't get anywhere by being pushy. A single phone call to the precinct and he'd be in the same boat as Esposito, he knew that, so he respected the boundary.

Rick took out one of his business cards from the precinct and wrote on the back of it.

"This is the address and phone number for my cabin up here, and my personal cell. My daughter and I will be here for the next week. Let me know if she changes her mind. Please, I want to get the people who did this, Mr. Beckett, and from one father to another, I know you do too."

James Beckett smiled weakly at him and accepted the basket of muffins from Alexis with true noblesse oblige, finding a warm smile for his daughter's thoughtfulness. It made Castle's heart melt the way Alexis could get people to warm toward her. She had a big heart and a gentle soul, and it showed.

Before Rick and Alexis turned back toward the Suburban, Jim placed a hand on his shoulder and nodded toward the house.

"Thank you Lieutenant Castle, I'll talk to her. I can't promise anything, but I'll try."

Rick took his hand and shook it. "Thank you, Mr. Beckett. I know this isn't easy, for her or for you, but I do want her to be safe; for this to be over. I've been where she is."

"Thank you, son. That somebody actually gives a damn about Katie means a lot to me."

* * *

Rick spent the rest of the week fishing, hiking and spending time with Alexis, but they rarely strayed far from the cabin. He still held out the slim hope that Kate Beckett would take him up on his offer. Hope that grew more and more slim with each passing day there was no word or sign of her.

They had spent the better part of the day packing their summer things and putting them in the shed, stocking the woodshed for their return the week leading up to New Years Eve. When there was a knock on the door.

When he opened it, Kate Beckett stood alone on the front porch, framed by the screen door, uncertainty painted on her wan, pretty face.

"Did you mean what you said?" she asked. "What you told my father. Did you mean it?"

Rick looked her straight in the eye before he responded. "Yes."

"Okay," she replied before turning to leave. "Count me in."

* * *

_*Author's note* In case anyone is wondering where I got Esposito's behavior concerning Roy Montgomery's reputation from, please watch Knockout when he and Ryan discover that he was the third cop. He was on the verge of beating his own partner, somebody who was like a brother to him, to a pulp for merely __suggesting__ that Montgomery was dirty. In this tale the bond between Kate and Espo had never been forged because this had come between them. So it isn't necessarily OOC under the circumstances. Such an accusation would not have been taken lightly and would have wrecked their partnership before it began._


End file.
